Common Barriers to Successful Projects - #1-7
By Raymond Posch

Experienced project managers are well aware that there are many barriers to success. To be honest, there could be an unlimited number of barriers that could be listed. I have identified 27 that are fairly common in my experience. Some of these are fully under control of the project manager, and it is his or her responsibility to take charge and do it right (and avoid the problem). Some may be only partially controllable by the PM and partially affected by factors outside of his or her control. And some of these are fully outside of the PM’s control.   

Here are the first seven in my list: 

1. Lack of clarity about the business goals for the project – First, it is imperative that the business sponsor (if internal) or customer (if external) be absolutely clear about the business goals and the business value that the project is supposed to create or enable. Unfortunately, this isn’t guaranteed when the project is initiated. There is often confusion or differences of opinion. Second, it is up to the project manager to get absolutely clear about the goals and intended results (value). Third, the PM must also ensure that the core team and the identified stakeholders also become clear. (This step usually occurs in the kickoff meeting and in subsequent discussions.)  
2. Project objectives not in line with current business strategy and priorities  – If the organization does not have a disciplined project initiation process, projects may be initiated at whim and they may not be fully aligned with current business strategy. It is up to the PM to question this (and how the project manager does this will likely depend very much on the players, politics, and culture). 
3. Project started without proper business justification and approval – This can happen when there is an established project initiation process and the business sponsor/initiator does not follow the process. A project in a disciplined organization should have a specific goal with expected business results, a business case that defines the value and estimated cost at a high level, and a formal approval to proceed, at least through a planning phase that will refine the expected value and the cost.  
4. Lack of or uninvolved project sponsor – The PM must ensure that there is a person from the business or customer organization that represents that organization on the project. The sponsor must own the project and be fully involved. Their role should be to understand everything happening on the project and to speak for all customer commitments – particularly approval of requirements, cost, and schedule, all changes to same, and acceptance of deliverables. 
5. Poor PM pre-planning and preparation for project prior to kickoff – The project manager must get clear about the project goals, the constraints, and how to conduct the project, and then get fully onboard, organized, and prepared with how to run the project before jumping in to a project kickoff.  
6. Changing goals or sponsor in mid project – Probably self explanatory. Changing the projects goals or sponsor (lead person on the business / customer side) can be an absolute project buster. A significant change of goals might require starting over at the beginning with a new business case and cost estimate.  
7. Forcing PM to use overly bureaucratic and wasteful methodology – The purpose of a project management methodology should be twofold: 1) to help improve the likelihood of project success through a proven, standardized process, and 2) to provide some efficiency to the PM by leveraging existing tools and process. But if the process adds work that has limited value then it has the opposite effect.  

Raymond Posch is publisher of Weekly PM Insights newsletter. See Ray's bio on our Meet the Experts page. He can be reached at ray@projectsuccesstips.com.

Filed under Project Management - General